It's all about entering the spaces I have created in these paintings and absorbing the atmosphere in there.

Night time has been described as the time when reality disappears and imaginings begin. People somehow seem less sane at night. Shakespeare described night as the witching time and the night seems to have been a particularly productive time for Vincent Van Gogh.

Moonlight Near Roxby Downs Oil On Canvas 101 cm x 142 cm

I completed the above work in 2014. It was inspired by a photo I saw of a lightning strike in the area and I was particularly interested in the sheen on the water created by the lightning fork. So I decided to turn the scene into a moonlit night time image, partly because of the challenge it presented and partly to highlight the isolation of the scene.

And yet, the cold moonlight perhaps gives the scene a softness and harmony that may not be present during the daytime when you could image the appalling heat during the summer months. Interestingly, I found reproducing the sheen on the water the most difficult task - making it look authentic. The vegetation in the foreground is largely an invention, through necessity as I couldn't make out the detail in the photograph.